In the Greene & Greene Style. Darrell Peart

      Introduction

      In my first book, Greene & Greene: Design Elements for the Workshop, I introduced my readers to the world of Greene & Greene. As a woodworker, one of my goals was to find out more about the craftsmen behind the Greene’s work: Peter and John Hall. In that regard, I am forever grateful to the Hall family—especially to Gary Hall (grandson of Peter Hall)—for opening up their homes and sharing their family history with me. Many of the things they showed me were significant to the history of Greene & Greene and had not been previously seen outside the Hall family. I had the honor of filling in a few small blanks in the history of Greene & Greene.

      It was the relationship of the two sets of brothers, the Greenes and the Halls, that I was really interested in. Much of this can only be speculation at this point, but the quality of work speaks loudly that that relationship was something divine. Over the years I have worked at many custom woodworking shops and it’s been my experience that when relations between designer/engineer/architect are less than optimal, the final product suffers. On the other hand, when the reverse is true, the work benefits greatly, as it more than did with the collaboration of the Greenes and the Halls.

      The style of Greene & Greene was also of prime importance in my previous book. I covered many of the more basic elements (and how to build them) and discussed their importance to the overall design. But there is more to a design than its individual components. Where did the various influences come from and how were they assimilated into the style at large? I think we can comfortably say that Charles Greene was the primary creative force, but I can’t help speculating on what may have been John Hall’s contribution. As is evident by his surviving personal work, John had a well-developed sense of design and was known to work closely with Charles. In any event, the creation of a new style inevitably means uniting previously unrelated elements to a work as a unified whole. In the case of Greene & Greene this never ceased for as long as they were actively designing—new ideas and elements were unceasingly being assimilated.

      I ended my last book with a plea to my readers to take what I had presented and “strike out on your own.” I offered up the interpretative Greene & Greene work of three furniture makers (including myself) as examples. Each of these furniture makers had developed their own perspective and had introduced elements of their own to the style.

      I have been studying the work of Greene & Greene for many years now. What stands out the most to me is the incredible level of thought behind the almost infinite number of details that became a part of the style. A new detail was never simply created, then cut and pasted here and there when needed. Each use of an individual element was given careful consideration before its use and was quite often “tweaked” to fit the given context. Because of this, Greene & Greene was never static—it perpetually renewed itself—it was in essence alive.

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